Florida plans to terminate contract for girls prison

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By Associated Press

Published: 02/13/2004

Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice on Thursday notified the operator of the state's only prison for female juvenile criminals that it will terminate its contract in 10 days, unless "all failures" are corrected.
Premier Behavioral Solutions of Coral Gables was told that it has failed to correct abuse problems and hasn't installed proper accountability measures. It also said security checks are not being consistently conducted at the Florida Institute for Girls in Palm Beach County.
Florida Juvenile Justice Secretary Bill Bankhead froze admissions at the prison between July 2003 and last month, after a series of incidents including violent confrontations and allegations of sex between officers and inmates. Other girls attempted suicide, attacked officers and repeatedly made abuse allegations.
"The Department demands that all terms and conditions of the contract be performed and all failures corrected," Charles Chervanik, assistant secretary for residential and correctional facilities, said in a letter to Premier Chief Operating Officer Jorge Rico.
Rico didn't immediately return an after-hours message left at his office.
The state is paying Premier $30 million over six years to run the 100-bed prison. Premier replaced its director with a new management team after several reports of abuse, but the department said it has not met several goals it agreed to six months ago.
Those goals included reducing the number of abuse reports by 25 percent, reducing the number of calls to outside law enforcement by 50 percent and reducing the number of disciplinary confinements by 40 percent.
The company's contract expires in June 2006. The department enacted a three-year extension on the original three-year contract last June.

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